9. Awake, Pilot

Michael Britten (Jason Isaacs) never sleeps. Or he does, rather, but each time he does, this police detective, who just survived a car crash with his family, wakes to a different reality: one in which his wife died in the crash, and one in which his son did. Coupled with the crime cases he solves in each “reality” is an overarching, internal detective story in which a different psychiatrist in each waking world tries to explore why his psyche has created the other reality. It’s an emotional story, thanks to Isaacs’ smoky intensity, but not the downer it may sound like. Instead, the premise offers a way to explore the mourning process without having to definitively kill off either of Michael’s loved ones. This twisty series didn’t make it past its first season, but this hour was a lovely introduction to a dream.